Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-02-06
THE ALAMO.
10 fHHRB Al IR1IPRHssrBLE CON.
YLICr ABROAD YETI
An Incident OF the Gallant Struggle Tor
Texan Independence-Brave
Polly erayson.
ATLANTA constitutional

a war-cloud seemed towering over hel
Mexican frontier, / took much interest
in ascertaining the popular feeling on
the subject OF a conflict with Mexico,
and found il pretty well voiced in the
words Of an old but staunch veteran,
who claimed to have been, when little
more than a boy, one Of the gallant
band who fought under Sam Houston's
leadership for the independence Of the
"Lone-Star" State.
"Texas and Mexico" he said, "can
never be peaceable neighbors. Texans
are white men, and 'geasers amt
and there's nothing in common between
them but a yearning to gun for each
other 1t is not only that oil the ideas
of the two people are antagonistic,
and that it is our natural interest
to keep our property, and their
natural desire to steal 1t, but there
is something else that keeps the shoot
ing-irons ready on each side-an old
grudge. We have not forgotten the
Alamo, and theyremember San Jacinto.
Those names are not simple memories
Of the old among MS, but traditions that
thrill the blood of the young. / met a
lad only bit ago that was fresh home
from an eastern college, who has been
away for five years, and was only boy
when he left home, but he is just as
eager for a hack at the greasers as l
am myself, and he wouldn't be
POLLY GRAYsoSs GRANDSON
if he wasn't. Who was Polly Gray
son 2 Well, I'll tell you about her,
and that story will give you some idea
why we remember the Alamo"
Jedediah Parmlee came out here with
Stephen f. Austin's colony of Ameri-
can settlers in 1921 from some place in
Connecticut-Ha Hartford, / think-and
took up land on the Brazos. His family
consisted of wife and two children-a
girl four or five years old that they
called Pauline, and boy, year older,
with the queer name of Melchisedek.
A few years after Mrs. Parmlee was
killed and scalped by the Indians, who
were put up by the sneaking, treacher-
Gus Mexicans to attack the settlers.
But Parmlee stuck to his place, and
though he, like all the rest, had
mighty hard tussle to get along for a
few years, he managed TO raise his
children, and ] tell you they we're worth
raising. Mel, as we called the boy
for short, was as fine young
chap as You ever saw, and Polly
one of the prettiest girls that
even Texas could produce, by the time
we were driven to declare our independ-
ence of Mexico in 1886. Onlya month
or two before that great event in our
history Polly married young man
named Fred. Grayson, farmer, who
lived near Parmlee's place. call her
Polly, although her name was Pauline,
you understand, because We were
neighbors and friends, and there was
a good deal more familiarity than style
among us in those days-a habit that
sort OF sticks to me yet.
SANTA ANNA,
the Mexican President, as soon rs he
learned that we would not quietly sub
nit to be robbed and kicked out Of the
country that we had made valuable by
fifteen years of toll and hardships,
which was what he intended to do from
the time he got into power, came at us
with a great big army, fully purposing
to wipe MS off the surface of the earth.
1t was a dusky prospect for Texas.
Pretty much every man and boy we
had that was able to carry gun turn
ed out for the common defence, but
with all we could muster Santa Anna
had four times as many, and if his
forces had been men instead of
" greasers " | don't suppose any OF us
would have been left alive.
Chance split up Polly's men folks so
that her father was with the heroic Lieu
tenant Colonel Travis; her husband was
serving in the Mustangs, under Cap
tian Duval, who was in Colonel Fan
nin's Inflated command, while her bro
ther Mel, who happened to be away
from home when the trouble began, in
some way got among Colonel Wards
Georgia volunteers. and, concludingthat
that was as good place to shoot from
as any other, stayed with them.
Colonel Travis, with his one hundred
and fifty men, was besieged in the little
fort at Bejas by five thousand Mexicans,
and fought them from the 23d of Feb
ruary to the 9th of March. Then the
Texans ammunition was exhausted and
the Mexicans
TOOK THE FORT BY An ASSAULT.
The ereasers had lost a Thousand of
their number iii the siege and the final
assault, and when they got in they only
found one man Of the gallant defenders
alive. and he was wounded. The man
was Jedediah Parmlee, and the greasers
deliberately put musket to his gray
head, as he lay helpless on the ground,
and blew his brains out.
Colonel Wards Georgia battalion,
100 strong, with Mel Parmlee in the
ranks, were shut up in the Mission
Rcfugio by 1000 Mexicans, and had
one whole day of desperate and con
iinuous fighting, in which they killed
go Mexicans without one OF their num-
her having been killed, and only three
were so badly wounded that they could
not lie taken along when the little gar
rison abandoned the place and made
good their escape under cover OF the
night. Those three, 10y the way,
were left on the Mission floor,
III the confident expectation that
they would receive from their
captors the consideration accorded
among civilized people to wounded
prisoners of war. The fact was that as
soon as the greasers rushed in the, next
morning they blew out the brains Of the
three wounded men, one of whom was
dying at the time they entered.
THE GEORGIA BATTALION
were captured by an overwhelming
Mexican force on the road between Vic
toria and Demill's Point, and were
in as prisoners 10 La Bahia, of
the commandancy of the Alamo, where
the survivors of Colonel Fannin's 400
men, who had been captured few days
before, were already held.
Colonel Fannin had been attacked on
the march by force of 1900 Mexicans,
well supplied with artillery and cavalry,
and after a gallant defence, at great dis
advantages, in the open prairie, when
their ammunition was exhausted, sur